Category Archives: Life and Stuff

The Best Christmas Ever!

Posted in Life and Stuff by

Well it was! Other than those magical ones when I was a child, waiting for Father Christmas, listening for sleigh bells and praying for snow, this year was pretty much Christmas perfection. Why you ask? What made this year so especially special? Well I will tell you!

  1.  We got sickness bug during the final week of term.

 Hello, your thinking – that doesn’t sound so especially special! However, early contagion meant that everyone was better by Christmas itself and for once no Christmassy bits of loveliness had to be cancelled! There was a worrying moment, when it looked as if I was going down too but general consensus is that a careless nibble on a bit of pork pie which had sat in Rosie’s sweaty lunchbox all day led to my downfall – the shame of it!

 2.  The Pre-Christmas Christmassy bits of loveliness…

 Whilst I do love Christmas Day and the wonder of seeing the little girls faces when they see that Santa has been, I have to admit for me the bit before, the build up throughout December, is my favorite part. The Christmas music on the radio, picking the presents, planning the menus, the school plays and church events leave me with a warm glow of festive cheer from fingers to toes. And this year a couple of bits really stood out:

  •  Lily’s school nativity play: – always a winner and this year a heartwarming rendition of the nativity tale entitled “Are We Nearly There Yet”. Anything which includes a song with the lines “Don’t know when the journey will end. I’m needing the toilet again!” gets my vote.
  • Rosie’s school carol concert at St Peter’s and St Paul’s church in Bromley which, with a theme of hope and peace, had me in tears. Nice work Mr J.
  • Christmas Carol Sing-along at The Royal Albert Hall. Christmas in a bowl – literally! I defy anyone to leave an event with 5,000 people, bedecked with Christmas hats and lights, singing their hearts out without feeling the Christmas magic. Book your tickets now!
  • The Nutcracker at the Coliseum. Some questioned whether my little girls were too small. But seeing my 5 year old daughter on the edge of her seat, transfixed, was simply amazing. Will be booking again next year.
  • Church Knitivity, A knitted (see what they’ve done there) version of the key players in the nativity that moves from house to house during Advent. We had room at our Inn as you can see below!

P1010746 P1010744

  • Church Crib service. Can there be a better to remember the true meaning of Christmas than to be in Church on Christmas Eve and see all the children from Sunday school act out the nativity story and sing carols?

Indeed, the only thing which could have possibly made this Christmas even better, would have been a light dusting of snow as we had wound our way home from Church on Christmas Eve. Never mind, there’s always next year – only 11 months to go!

Arghhhhhhhhhh…

Firework Feast

Posted in Life and Stuff by
Chilli Con Jamie, courtesy of Jamie's America. (Ours jolly tasty not so glamorously presented).

Chilli Con Jamie, courtesy of Jamie’s America. (Ours jolly tasty not so glamorously presented).

One sparkling step-teen.

One sparkling step-teen.

Now, I cannot lie, I have visions of myself as some form of domestic goddess, casually assembling a dinner party for 20, whilst gaily baking scones with the kids and all the time looking super sexy in a sultry, smiley Nigella Lawson kind of way. Unfortunately, as in most things in life, the reality falls a little short of the dream. Firstly, I pretty much hate cooking with the kids. Now don’t get me wrong, I love cooking and I adore my girls. But like fish fingers and custard, I don’t love the two at the same time. If, I have nothing else on my agenda for the entire week than baking some cupcakes with the small folk is fine. But, when I am trying to get something done to a timeline, the plaintive cry of “Can I help mummy?” can bring me out in hives.

Secondly, I don’t know anyone who can put a party for 8 adults and 8 kids together without looking somewhat flustered by the end and their kitchen as if a bomb has gone off. Actually, the first part of that is a lie, as both my mum and brother can cook a dinner for 25 and still be smiling. I always start smiling. I finish in a sweaty panic.

I therefore have a couple of rules when it comes to entertaining.

  1. Never cook anything that involves tense timings right at the end – you can guarantee your mayonnaise will curdle or your scallops end up with the texture of boots. Which leads me to point 2…
  2. Always cook things that survive an extra 30 minutes/ hour/2 hours in the oven
  3. Always cook things you have cooked before (or only foray in the unknown if there is no possibility you can bugger it up – see point 2)
  4. Be generous with your quantities (no one wants to appear mean / leave a dinner party hungry)
  5. Always have oodles of alcoholic beverages (as per point 4 but supplement the word thirsty where appropriate)

The point to these ramblings is that we just had a cheeky little Firework’s Party with our NDN’s (Next Door Neighbours), the parental units and my brother and his family, and I thought I would share my tips (not tits!).

1. FOOD

Kids (no we didn’t eat them!)

  • Sausages, in rolls, with ketchup. That’s it. It is a formula which has worked for countless years and only a mad man would mess with it.  Keys points for success are:
    • Buy cheap sausages. Kids like cheap sausages and most don’t like ones with high meat content (= chewy) / added herbs (=new/spicy).
    • Cook lots – they are cheap (see above) and you can guarantee the adults will get involved too.

Adult Food

  • A bucket load of crisps and nuts
  • Cooked meats arranged artisitically on a platter.
  • Chilli con Jamie
    • super delicious, super easy and ticks all of my points for dinner party success.
  • Jacket Potatoes
  • Soured cream / chopped coriander to decorate (frillies).

 2. FIREWORKS

I have to admit that it has taken us a couple of attempts to perfect the art of successfully selecting fireworks. However, following several less than satisfactory forays into the world of legalized explosives, we now have a winning formula:

  • Find a specialized firework shop – a pop up one which looks like a cover for illegal arms dealing will work perfectly. Acquiring explosives from a supermarket where you buy your potatoes will not. When you think about it is makes perfect sense…
  • Buy big multi-shot fireworks. Go for ones which have the highest cost per shot. These tend to be more impressive firework displays.
  • Buy as many as you can afford.
  • Get everyone else to bring one too – or contribute to the kitty
  • Ensure everyone knows NOT to bring a little piddly selection box of individual fireworks. Other wise your leading man will be stuck in the garden, in the rain, for hours on end, letting off fireworks which no one gives a monkey’s bum about.
  • You can never have to many sparklers – period.

 3. ALCOHOL

Now to be honest us, and most of our friends, are like the Tigers Who Came To Tea. So in all alcoholic areas we think big. Lots of wine, lots of beer , lots of vodka and diet coke for the leading man. Cater to all known needs and then some. With wine, I find it is best to start expensive (we like to dance in the Waitrose wooden section for special occasions) and then cheaper for when everyone is hammered (Lidl). Once anyone is past a bottle and a half of wine they could drink Blue Nun and think it delish.

Pour all the above together, light the blue touch paper and voila – a party that will go off with a bang.

Adious.